Takin It To the Streets, The Jackson Fall Arts Festival

Five am was really early and as we finished packing while making coffee, we knew it was going to be a long day. The drive to Jackson was scary as we kept a constant lookout for wildlife. Sure enough a huge bull elk gave us a scare as it stood in the ditch and watched as we drove by. Renita said it had a huge rack but I was too busy watching for more elk to risk a glance/

Arriving in Jackson we set up in the early morning light. It was cold, about thirty-five degrees Fahrenheit, and we wished the sun would hurry up and climb high enough to peek over the stores. Our spot was just east of the antler welcome gates and not on the park side, (the park side spots are much more desirable as not everyone walks down both rows of vender tents.

The show officially started at ten am and the sun chased the shadows away just as people started checking out our booth. The first sale was small, a twenty-dollar cabochon, but at least we would be able to afford hot dogs for dinner, one of our standard jokes.

It remained slow for the next hour and then the people arrived. We barely had time for a lunch break and so we took turns eating and answering questions. Our work and stones were well received and we even had the president of the Jackson Hole Art Association stop by to chat. He said we had the first green Wyoming jade he had seen in years and complimented us on our displays.

The president of the Jackson Geology Association also stopped and invited us to become members. She was also impressed with our stones and even bought a pair of jade earrings and a matching cabochon. It’s a real compliment to have a local resident compliment you by buying some of your work!

Many of the visitors were from out of the country and we sold one of our most beautiful green jade pendants to a woman from China. It’s always a huge compliment when a person from China buys a piece of our Wyoming Jade!

Renita tried to stroll around and look at the other booths but I had to call her back as the crush of people was just too much. A little after three pm we made a sale of a Spencer opal and just after that person left a huge gust of wind threatened to blow down the vender tents. The artists near us actually had paintings and cards blow away but our rocks didn’t move.

Just like a house of cards the other venders started to tear down exposing us to more wind. While our tent was staked out with four seven gallon containers of water, we still decided discretion was the better part of valor and tore down ourselves.

It had been a very good day, even with closing early and we had met some new and old friends. That’s what the shows are really about. It was our last show of the year and now we can concentrate on finishing up with doctor’s appointments and getting our new rig ready, well new to us anyway, for our winter travels. Clear skies